


Gliding on a Single Blade

by K___Kelly



Series: Adventures in Winter [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Ice Skating, Romance, Snow Day, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Whitestone (Critical Role), will add tags as i add chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-02-22 10:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22148032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K___Kelly/pseuds/K___Kelly
Summary: Various members of Vox Machina enjoy relaxing snowy days in Whitestone
Relationships: Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia
Series: Adventures in Winter [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1594126
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	1. Snowy Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

> More Vaxleth fluff I'm not even a little bit sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keyleth loves mornings and snow and skating...Vax loves Keyleth

“Oh my goodness yesyesyes oh yes! VAX LOOK! Look it snowed last night!” Keyleth’s exuberance is greeted with an unenthusiastic groan. Vax turns and burrows deeper under the covers shivering. The air outside of the lumpy down comforter is ice cold, and he’s certain that his breath will freeze midair the second he raises his head above the covers. Sadly, his girlfriend is WAY too much a morning person. He moans in response, “Kiki go back to sleep, the snow will still be there in a couple hours, I promise.” Carefully, he reaches a slender calloused hand out from beneath the covers in a desperate attempt to lure Keyleth back to bed. It flounders for a bit feeling around for Keyleth’s warmth or the light cotton of her night shift. Since he cannot successfully locate his girlfriend by touch he eventually gives in and pokes his head far enough out of the covers to spy Keyleth still in her nightclothes leaning out the window upside down catching snowflakes on her tongue. That makes him smile in spite of the cold or his lingering sleepiness. She catches him watching her and flushes deep crimson. She immediately ducks back through the window, and quickly brushes the flakes off her shoulders as she makes her way back to the bed. Vax is still only half-conscious, but fully entranced by the lacy snow drops that have gotten caught in her red mane. He watches as they melt into the wild head of curls that amasses itself on the pillow beside him. 

Keyleth curls into him murmuring. “Sorry I woke you, I got too excited I shouldn’t have… I mean if I’d thought… ” She sighs, her breath is warm against his neck. “Sorry Vax.”

A pang of guilt flashes through him. He turns over so they’re facing each other. “No, Keyleth don’t apologize I’m sorry I’m such a grump, it’s just mornings aren’t really my style especially the kind of mornings where I _can_ see breath and I _can’t_ feel my toes.”He grimaces in the way that he knows will make her laugh and is immediately rewarded by a soft giggle.

“Well, I’m sorry you don’t like them because I think these are my favorite types of morning, when the sunrise reflects off the crystallized snow in just a million dazzling colors, and the whole world is just waiting for someone to bask in its frosted glory and…AND if you’re really lucky the lake will be frozen through and we can go skating!” She happily tucks herself under his arm, but he can’t help noticing that she’s hardly been able to tear her gaze away from the snowy landscape for even a full second. As a test he moves his arm just enough so that she’s not under the full weight and he closes his eyes feigning sleep. Over the course of about ten minutes he carefully regulates his breath and resists the urge to wrap his arms around Keyleth and take her with him back into the delicious warmth of sleep. Keyleth squints at him for a moment, trying to determine if he actually fell back to sleep. She sits up, he doesn’t respond. She pokes his cheek gently, he almost smiles but catches himself and doesn’t respond. She slowly peels back the covers, and its only thanks to his experience and training in stealth that he is able to avoid gasping as the warm blankets betray his body to the cold morning air. When none of this seems to wake Vax, Keyleth is satisfied. So, as quietly as she can, she creeps back over to the window and as soon as he feels her weight leave the bed, Vax opens one eye to watch Keyleth. He sees her sit on the trunk beneath the window with her knees pulled up to her chin, playful fingers tracing designs onto the frosted windowsill. By now the initial red flush of embarrassment has faded to the intoxicating pink of excitement still spreading across her cheekbones until the warmth and overflowing joy burns in her verdant eyes. 

_Beautiful._

Tired as he is Vax can’t deny that her excitement contagious. He leaps out of the bed with a single brave jump and barely holds back a yelp of surprise and distress when his bare feet touch the icy wooden floorboards. “Vax! You were awake I knew it!” He shrugs only slightly sheepish and walks over to drape himself around her warmth, strong arms easily encircling her slight form. 

_How the hell is she so warm when it’s so fucking cold right now?_

“What’s this about skating Kiki?” He mumbles into her hair and absentmindedly starts running his fingers through the tangles gently working through a nest of stubborn knots. 

She leans back against his chest, naturally fitting herself perfectly beneath his chin.“Well I haven’t been skating in a really long time and if the lake is fully frozen I’d love to go. It’s my favorite thing in the world to do during winter. I used to try and sneak off to the edge of Frostweald Forest outside of Zephrah every year just so I could skate.” The last bit is murmured under her breath he manages to catch it, but just barely.

“You know if you’d like, we could go see if the lake’s frozen before the rest of us are awake?”She twists in his grasp to face him and the warmth in her eyes is more than worth getting up for. 

“Can we?”

“Sure, just get dressed in something warm and we’ll sneak out before anyone else wakes up.” She nods and slips off to find her winter wear. It’s probably still in the hall closet where they packed away their wintry things. He starts shivering again as soon as she moves away. Glancing around the room he spots his Deathward’s armor. He buckles it on and immediately begins concentrating until it is set to cold resistance. The instantaneous warmth prompts him to mutter a quick prayer of thanks to the Raven Queen. 

“VAX ARE YOU READY?”

He hushes her halfheartedly chuckling under his breath. “Shh Kiki not so loud or you’ll wake all of Whitestone.”

Keyleth bursts into the room breathless and bundled in a scratchy brown woolen coat that falls below her knees, a deep green scarf is wrapped twice around her neck with enough material left to cover her mouth and nose, and to top it off she's wearing an oversized green hat that hangs over her eyes and slightly mismatched knee high boots. She is shifting back and forth from one foot to the other partially from excitement and partially from obvious discomfort. Vax chuckles at the ruddy freckled nose which is the only part of Keyleth still visible between the scarf and hat, both of which were clearly not made for willowy half-elves. “What’s with all the wool?”

She huffs from beneath the layers. “Vex hid the furs again. I think she's still mad about the set Grog and Scanlan wrecked last year.”

_That would explain it._

Vex doesn't forget things easily. He decides its better to work with what they have at their disposal then to try and dig up the furs from wherever his sister had squirreled them away. “Here let me help you.” Vax’s deft fingers make quick work of the oversized winterwear. He reties the scarf so that it is no longer muffling half her face and tosses the drooping hat aside, but her eyes are still obscured by the unruly curls which have been further agitated by the static in the wool. “Do you want me fix your hair love? You can’t skate if it’s in your face like that.”

Keyleth nods happily at first, but then frowns. “Wait, isn’t that something you do just for Vex?”

He kisses her cheek, seats her at the edge of the bed, and begins a running a comb gently through her curls. “Well you see, our mother taught both of us how to braid hair properly, but Vex never had the patience to do it when we were little and when we left home I sort of took over that job, of course she’s more than capable now, but she still lets me braid it every once and awhile and it’s nice, it’s a nice way to remember." For a moment he loses himself in the memory before shaking himself gently back to the present. "Anyway, it’s something I used to do for her, but now as long as you’re comfortable it’s something I want to do for you. But I promise it doesn’t take anything away from me and Vex.”

She nods hesitantly, but then beams when he brings a mirror over to let her admire his handiwork. Her hair is braided neatly across the top of her head and pinned like a crown or a halo encircling her elongated heart-shaped face. A few stubborn curls have escaped near her temples and at the nape of her neck but at least for the moment the beast has been tamed. “It's perfect, I love it!” She surprises him with a quick peck on the lips and dashes out the door before she gets too flustered by the kiss. He hears her whisper shouting over her shoulder. “To the lake!” 

He laughs and calls after her. “Wait Keeks don’t forget the skates!” 


	2. It's All About Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keyleth loves skating...that doesn't mean she's good at it

As it turns out she probably didn’t need the skates, Keyleth definitely would have spent more time upright on the ice without them.

“Wait, wait, wait, I’ve got it this time I’ve totally got it!” Vax reluctantly lets go of her hand as Keyleth once again attempts to make her way solo across the frozen lake. Two small steps a wobble and a push, another two tiny steps a slightly more confident glide. Two larger steps, a shaky gliding motion followed by two fully confident steps and a smooth graceful glide. Immediately she turns to wave at him and promptly falls on her face. “Oof!”

He slides over carefully to help her up. “Are you alright? When you said you loved skating this isn’t quite what I imagined.” He holds out a hand as Keyleth pushes herself up from her faceplant back onto her knees. She carefully wobbles back to her feet.

“Oh, I’m totally fine don’t worry, and yeah I never said I was good at it, but I still love it! Also wow you are really good at this, like almost unfairly good?”

He puts a steadying hand on her shoulder and gently captures the hand that isn’t busy fiddling with her scarf and brushing ice flakes off her coat. “I think it comes with the whole sneaky bastard thing something to do with balance probably.”

She nods thoughtfully. “The wings help too I bet, with the balancing and such...you know I’ve always wanted to actually get good at skating because I bet it feels like flying. Of course now that I’m saying that out loud it sounds pretty ridiculous you know since I actually _can_ fly and I do it pretty often. And well if I really wanted to I could totally fly without even transforming into an animal. I could use the carpet or if Vex was feeling generous I could borrow the broom or find a potion or a spell, but...it’s not really about flying I guess it’s more about the _feeling_ of flying or well no, that’s not quite what I mean it’s more about the feeling of doing it myself without any magic it’s...it’s about being in control? Yeah I think that’s it, when I’m skating or trying anyway, I feel completely out of control but at least I’m in control of being out of control does that make sense? She sighs deeply plopping down in the middle of the ice to start unlacing her skates. "I know I’m not graceful just as me, but if I could be, if I just get this right then maybe I don't know...also I think my problem with skating and well kinda my problem in general isn't really about strength or balance or grace or any of that. It's more about getting past myself...wait no, gah I’m not making any sense am I?” She trails off uncertain and looks up at Vax. His eyes are trained intently on her, head purposefully inclined towards her so that she knows he’s listening. Vax waits before responding, he knows her too and he can tell she's still ordering her thoughts. “I-I bet you’re just a natural skater because you’re so confident and you rush into everything headfirst I probably just think too much but sometimes too little.” She wrinkles her nose and makes a face before she smiles at him. The teasing edge of her words is tempered by her lingering uncertainties.

He waits until he’s sure she’s done venting before her responds. She's looking up at him with a slight flush of embarrassment, but a smile so wistful and trusting it makes him desperate to find the right response. He squats down and gently pulls her back on her feet, she starts to protest, but stops when he kneels down to re-lace her skates. “Kiki you know that I think you have no limits, I’m so crazy about you so it's hard to understand why you don’t see how incredible you are. He starts to walk backward pulling her with him slowly across the ice. "You can quite literally control the weather, you shouldn’t let a frozen lake intimidate you or anything else for that matter... but I think I get what you’re saying at least a little." She stumbles but he catches her flailing arms before she fully loses her balance. He guides them both back over to a clear section of the lake's edge. She sits down, but he stops her from taking the skates. His much larger hands gently encompass her wooly mittens; he takes a deep breath before continuing. "I think I understand because well, before _She_ got involved, everything I did, daggers and traps and all that was all me, well you know any parts that weren’t the rest of us. Those were all skills and talents that I built, that I could rely on because they were fully _mine._ But then came all of this new stuff and it felt like cheating, even the wings which are pretty fucking cool. but none of it is fully mine I have to rely on _Her_ for all of it and she could take it all away in a split second so at first I really didn’t want to rely on any of it and even now every time I use her power it feels like a blind nosedive or...”

He hesitates and she supplies the words she knows he was trying to avoid. “A leap of faith?”

“Yeah something idiotic like that, and I know your power works differently, but I think I get the need to do something yourself... and I guess it defeats the purpose if I keep trying to help too much?”

She nods her hands are nervously wringing the ends of her overlarge scarf. “I mean I don’t want you to leave, but I do want to try to get this right on my own, is that alright?”

“Absolutely, I’ll be here to offer... words of encouragement?”

“Sure! Oh, and you don’t have to stop skating or anything, I still want you to be here for as long as you still want to be here, just maybe don’t help quite as much?”

He laughs a little and skates backward a couple feet to give her some space. “Got it, I won’t go too far though.”

“Good. You better not.” She looks directly at him smiling with utmost certainty, knowing that this, _all of this;_ the kind words, the encouragement, the faith he places in her is exactly what she wants. 


	3. Late Night Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy doesn't really like surprises but Vex can't help herself

“Vex dear, please remember I’m not all that fond of surprises...”

“But darling you’re always finding wonderful ways to surprise me.”

“Well yes, but you like surprises and I prefer...”

“Boredom?”

He bristles at the implication. “Predictability.”

“Which is boring and out of character for both of us, honestly darling we traipse across Exandria saving lives and fighting horrors. Nothing about our lives is the least bit predictable.”

“B-But at least we can predict some measure of unpredictability.”

Vex groans and rolls her eyes. “Do you really trust me so little darling?”

“I-It’s not that, but can’t we have a surprise that’s inside?”

“You and Vax are both such _babies_ about the cold and besides, I can’t bring the surprise inside, so you’ll just have to trust me and come out with me, just for an hour...please?”

He looks at her and is immediately distracted by her lip which is jutting out pitifully in a precious pout that he is notoriously weak to. “That lip makes this entirely unfair...alright when have I ever said no to you?”

“Mmm never. I think that’s why I love you so much.” She bats her eyelashes flirtatiously, but she can't stop a smug smile from overtaking her lips.

Percy chuckles pretending to be exasperated when really he's just increasingly enamored. “Really? Is that the only reason, you love me because I’m weak to your wiles?”

She shrugs winking at him as she pulls ahead slightly to lead him down the winding staircase toward the castle's entrance. “Don’t feel bad darling you’re not the only one.”

She reaches back blindly to capture his hand and he immediately brings it up to his lips, catching her off guard and delighting in her split second vulnerability. “I think if you led me off a cliff I’d probably follow.”

She stops and turns to look at him, she snatches up his other hand and deliberately looks him in the eyes. Her voice takes on a much more serious tone. “You know I wouldn’t hurt you.”

He lets himself be pulled toward her, his mind flits over the concept of gravity. “I know.” 

Vex unlaces their fingers and sits down one step below where he's standing. The sincerity in her voice bleeds into her posture, her natural poise disappears as she reclines until her back is flush against his legs. She murmurs, “And you know I didn't mean that you know I love you truly darling and you've always known why.”

“I do?” He sits down behind her, careful not to disrupt her balance. Strongs arms reach around to entangle her. 

Before he can full entrap her she whirls on him and grabs him by the lapels kissing him fiercely until she's sure he's breathless. “Doesn’t that speak volumes?”

“I mean it does but, the spoken word is such a delicate and wondrous art form.” He can see her face is flush in the dim moonlit stairwell and since he found it he has never doubted her love, but he rarely gets a chance to press Vex to say exactly what she means. Of course she immediately catches on to his intentions. 

“You _terrible_ man you’re really going to make me say it aloud?” She stands up and scowls at him with one hand on her hip, he watches as she unconsciously moves further away from the single beam of moonlight shining through an overhead window.

He smiles at her scowl and moves past the moment of moonlight so they're pressed up against each other with her back against the wall. “Well, I believe you owe me something for dragging me out of our bed past midnight, don’t you?”

She rolls her eyes again and cocks her eyebrow in the way that indicates she is mostly amused and only slightly annoyed. “I am never surprising you again, you are terribly ungrateful.”

He fully ignores her attempt to change the subject, “I love hearing it from you, we both prefer actions to words most of the time but I think hearing you admit it, sober and out loud might just be enough to keep me warm and then I promise I will thoroughly enjoy whatever you have planned for me and I won’t complain again for the rest of the night.”

“Now _that_ would be a surprise.”

“Now hold on...” She cuts him off with another kiss, somehow longer than the last one this time she fully intends to leave them both completely breathless.

“I love you Percival because _you_ make me want to be better and to do everything in my power to make the rest of the world better just because I know that you’re in it... There is that the sentimentality you've been fishing for, is that enough for you, you impossible man?" 

He turns red but quickly wraps both arms around her whispering in her ear. “You’ve been so eager I’m sorry for ruining your plans.”

She easily returns the embrace happily relishing how natural it has become for both of them. “You haven’t ruined anything...yet and I suppose I should know better by now than to try to surprise you, and as for all of _that_ you know I prefer... I mean we both prefer...well we don’t...really take words at face value. Hardly ever. And yet somehow I...I really don’t know how you do it but you've almost always managed to say what I need to hear...”

He hasn't let go of her, his hands are resting comfortably on her waist as responds musingly, “I think we both have a tendency to use words like currency so it can be difficult to know when they mean more than just an exchange, but I sincerely hope we can change that between us and in light of that if it would please you my lady...” He feels her shiver with pleasure when he uses her title unexpectedly. “I will work on being a bit more receptive to all of your surprises in the future.”

“Is that a promise?”

“On my family name, although I suppose it’s really not fair to say that I hate all surprises.”

She gives him a careful look, but waits to hear him elaborate. “In fact, there was this one surprise I can think of, I believe it involved you and some alcohol and a distinct lack of clothing. Now I must admit _that_ was a lovely surprise.”

Of course, as soon as he mentions she knows exactly what he’s thinking of and the memory is equally pleasurable to her. “Mmm well then, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” While he’s still pressed up against her she slides her knee up the inside of his thigh before suddenly pulling away with a wink and a knowing smile. “And since you’ve distracted us so thoroughly I might as well just tell you what I’ve got planned ...”

He bows gallantly. “As you wish my lady I am alway at your service.”

“Mmmhmm well since the moon is shining so brilliantly tonight and the lake is still frozen through I thought we’d be sappy and go skating in the moonlight?”

“S-Skating?”

“How does that sound darling?”


End file.
